Saturday, August 1, 2009

Get rid of bike lanes

Dear Editor (Forum West):

The other day my mother, who can barely walk because of bad knees, was getting out of my car in front of my home. I helped her to the door, with my daughter sitting in the front passenger seat, when a traffic brownie pulled up and gave me a $115 ticket for being in a bike lane.

Well excuse me, I did not ask for a bike lane to be put in front of my house. What idiot politician put these bike lanes in, thereby wasting tax money? Unfortunately, there is a stupid bike lane in front of my home. As matter of fact, if a passenger in a car opens their door to get out and a biker is coming, the biker will run into the person.

When the Howard Beach Community Board (CB10) starts up again in September, this is the first thing on the agenda. We should all get signatures to do away with these bike lanes on the side streets of Howard Beach.

A City Council Resolution cosponsored by City Councilman Joseph P. Addabbo Jr., in anticipation that DOT would eventually install bike lanes in Rockaway, asked that community boards be given significant input to bicycle lane proposals.

The proposition was never presented to Community Board 14 for input and proceeded forward anyway.

why did they put bike lanes in howard beach, there are way too many cars over there to have them. what idiot thought this would be good for the howard beach neighborhood? it's hard enough driving over there let alone having a bike lane.

>>>As matter of fact, if a passenger in a car opens their door to get out and a biker is coming, the biker will run into the person.<<<

a) The bike lane laws need to be relaxed so that you don't get a ticket to stop and pick up a passenger. Clearly.

b) Look. As a driver, you need to look out the door, or in the mirror at least, and see if a bike is coming before you open the street side door. A cyclist cannot swerve into the middle of the street if traffic is coming to avoid a doorer. As a bicyclist I've gotten into several loud arguments with drivers about this.

I'm a life-long resident of Howard Beach and I use the bike lanes often. I'll admit that they are somewhat superfluous, given the wide streets and relatively low traffic levels, but it's nice to feel some sense of separation from motorists.

With that said, I don't think it was right to install them without consulting residents. I remember one day seeing an army of DOT trucks lined up on 157 Ave and wondering what they were doing. The next day bike line magically materialized. Second, they shouldn't write tickets for blocking the lanes. If there's a car in the lane, there's usually enough room for me to pass. Plus I know it's most likely a resident dropping someone or something off.

Bike lanes in Howard Beach are a good idea that could have been better with more community input and less draconian enforcement.

They're taking out the bike lane by my work (30th Street, 9th Avenue). Less than 6 months after they installed street curbs to make the lane & move traffic signals ... they're ripping them all out.

I say "Good riddance!" Sure, biking is a good thing ... but I've been side-swiped once, seen it happen to others on a daily basis, and heard of 2 serious knock-downs within a block of where I work. The bikers are blowing through red lights (traffic signals installed JUST for them!) and not looking for pedestrian traffic.

Enh, I guess I don't really want the lanes to go away. I just wish they'd start ticketing bikers for traffic/moving violations. They certainly don't seem to be taking responsibility for their actions on the city's gift of bike-lanes.

Why bike lanes? no real reason, if the word "reason' means sense. The city got federal funds, therefore they used them for that (and other things, of course.)They need to add a certain number of miles of bike lanes, Queens and Brooklyn make that possible--regardless of the wishes of the people. Shame!

Addabbo had nothing to do with them. Those bike lanes were proposed as part of the Department of City Planning's Bicycle Master Plan in 1997 four years before he was ever elected. Rudy Giuliani was Mayor and Al Stabile was the Councilman. Those plans were dusted off and implemented by Bloomy and his DOT last year with no consultation with anyone to find out if their was support for them now 20 years later.

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